Original scientific paper
CONCEPT AND PRACTICE OF CITIZENSHIP AMONG CROATIAN HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS
Vladimir Vujčić
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The essay describes the study of the evolution of the awareness (understanding) and the practice (activities, participation) of citizenship among Croatian highschool students (the first new generation of full-age citizens). The research was conducted in line with similar models in relevant international studies, which enabled a comparative analysis. The analysis of the concept (basic theory) of citizenship was followed by a comparative analysis of the development and the distribution of the citizenship awareness and the yardsticks of the practice of citizenship among Croatian high-school students. A number of indicators of the awareness of citizenship (civic identity, the model and the type of citizenship, the concept of the “good citizen”, and the concept of the rights and duties of citizens in democracy), and several measures of the practice of citizenship (political interest, discussing politics, following news in the media, the expected conventional and protest political activism, political tolerance) have been used. The comparative analysis has shown that the Croatian students are in some aspects of citizenship at the level of students in many of the compared countries, but that in others there are significant differences. Thus, for example, their level of political interest is significantly lower. The analysis has shown that there is a high awareness of the rights, but relatively a low awareness of the duties. Perhaps this discrepancy between the awareness of the rights and the duties is the main problem in the development of the political culture of the Croatian students and the citizens. The expected conventional and protest participation among the Croatian students is significantly lower than among students from other countries. The research also shows that among Croatian students (that phenomenon has also been noticed in other countries) there is a significant discrepancy between, for example, the awareness of the rights and duties of citizens in democracy and the level of political tolerance: the high level of awareness of one’s rights (freedom of speech, association, etc.) coexists with a relatively low level of tolerance. Thus, it can be said that various inconsistencies tag and “burden” the evolution of citizenship among Croatian high-school students.
Keywords
civic identity; Croatian citizenry; high-school students; democracy
Hrčak ID:
23074
URI
Publication date:
22.3.2004.
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